As a technology writer, I'm continually exposed to the latest gadgets. My main phones over the recent past have been smartphones and connected handhelds, from the O2 XDA through to the latest Treo 600 and SPV E200. However, I recently decided to investigate what was going on back in the 'normal' world of communication, and got myself a mobile phone - nothing more, nothing less. Although it's by no means dumb, it's not smart either, and this set me thinking about how the two categories could learn from each other.

Mobile phones are drawing closer to smartphones, it has to be said. The latest handsets are loaded with high-resolution colour screens, proper audio capabilities, PIM suites, full e-mail support, add-on applications via Java, full connectivity through Bluetooth and media capabilities through cameras. In fact, the line is pretty blurred.

However, the biggest thing that mobiles have still to learn from smartphones comes in customization. With the majority of mobile phones there's no today screen concept familiar from Microsoft's offerings, nor can the menu structure be reconfigured to better match personal usage. Things remain as the manufacturer, not the user, intended. This means wasted button presses and frustrated users.

Phones also leave a lot to be desired in terms of sheer power and storage. The lack of card slots, MP3 players, document viewers and all those gubbins mean that all that extra functionality is annoyingly missing, with no option of adding it through third-party applications. Those applications that are present remain anaemic, too: one won't find a phone capable of synchronizing your e-mail from a desktop. In fact, synchronization as a whole remains a mess of proprietary programs and data cables for most phones. I never thought I'd praise ActiveSync, but here I am missing it.

However, smartphones have a few things to learn too. They still can't come close to the svelte beauty and pocketable size of modern mobile phones, and nor do their battery lives match the week-long duration of some plainer offerings.

Finally, although Handspring have cracked a lot of things with their Treo 600, there are few other smartphones and connected handhelds that can match the most basic Nokia for speed and efficiency in the everyday, common tasks (such as messaging), and their sheer brick-like solidity under daily punishment.

So, what we need is a simple, powerful, small, fast, usable, customizable and expandable handset with an eternal battery life. Sounds impossible? I'm not giving up hope just yet.